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Tag Archives: UCLan

On Thursday 18th February, join University of Central Lancashire experts at the Adelphi Pub (Preston) to discuss the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ethical questions society will be facing. There will be live demonstrations of AI and robotics to show the technology’s current capabilities followed by an interactive debate exploring the issues.

Our experts include Dr Stephen Sigurnjak and Matt Dickinson who will be demonstrating AI in action and how it can interface with robots. Psyhcologist Dr Sarita Robinson will be exploring the differences between the human brain and AI.

This event has been organised by the Lancashire branch of the British Science Association and is part of the Future Debates series.

Hi my name is Emily. I am the new Public Events Assistant at UCLan and from now on I will be taking over the EngageUCLan blog. I will be keeping you up to date with UCLan’s latest events and the Lancashire Science Festival.

I recently graduated from UCLan with a first class degree in Journalism. I had such a great time during my degree; learning shorthand, working as a team and producing news programmes, that I decided to return to UCLan as an intern!

During my internship I am hoping to gain lots of valuable experience that could help me throughout my career and I am really looking forward to getting started on the Lancashire Science Festival.

So if you don’t already, make sure to follow the EngageUCLan blog to find out about UCLan’s events.

UCLan’s Cat Tennick and Sarita Robinson will be performing their first stand-up comedy gig in Manchester on Thursday as part of Nexus’s new exhibition.

Along with other new researchers they will slice and dice comedy with neuroscience, sociology and many more moving parts.

Dr Sarita Robinson, who is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, said: “We are both excite to be taking part and communicating our research to adiverse audience. The routines are full of the funny side of two quite grim research areas (the psychology of survival and forensic science – knife wounds!). It will be good to explain the research that we do to an interested but non-academic audience.

Other guests include Lisa Heaney, Chella Quint, Robert Ludlow, Dave Calvey and the music of Gideon Conn, who have been braught together by Steve Cross, comedy guru and the founder of the very first Bright Club in London.

UCLan will welcome BBC Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE for a free public event looking at her life experiences of being a woman in science and presenting the world’s longest running television series.

Maggie will share how, against the odds, she became a space scientist, a leading science communicator to UK schoolchildren and a “go to” science pundit for the media. She will talk about what’s it like to be put on the spot by Jeremy Paxman, why she had an apology from a national newspaper this year and consider if there is a question that has left her speechless.

The event has been organised by Athena Swan Officer Claire Meadows-Haworth who promotes UCLan’s commitment to advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine. She said: “We are delighted to welcome Maggie to the University to share her incredible and inspiring journey that has led to her presenting the iconic BBC Sky at Night programme.

“Maggie is a fantastic example of a woman who has carved a successful career in science and I hope students, staff and members of the public will come along to hear all about it.”

The Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE Public Lecture will take place at 6.30pm on Wednesday 10 June with doors opening at 6pm. It will take place in Darwin Lecture Theatre with free parking on Foster Car Park. The event is free to all but visitors need to book online beforehand.

For more information email: hrdevelopmentteam@uclan.ac.uk or call 01772 894559.

We’ve been awarded a grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering to run 3D-printing events here at UCLan.

The project will include events that take place out and about within the community. We’ll also hold workshops on campus at the UCLan and Ri Young Scientist Centre for school groups and girl guides.

The grant will give people the chance to have a go at 3D printing for themselves. We will be visiting local cafes and bars as well as taking the 3D printers into museums with engineers on hand to chat with people about what they do.

Dr Hadley Brooks, Lecturer in Engineering, who will be involved in delivery some of the events, said: “3D printing is going to be one of the most important technologies of the 21st century, shaping all industries from health, transport, sporting goods, machinery and electronics. I am excited about the opportunity to show future inventors the power of this technology with hands-on demos, and by presenting cutting edge research from UCLan and around the world.”

3D printing has huge potential for the future and so we are also going to be asking people to submit their own 3D printing designs via social media so we can make them. We will also be creating short videos starring engineers setting small engineering challenges you can try at home. Watch this space for more info on how you can get involved and have a go at 3D-prinitng for yourself.

British Science Week takes place next week from 13-22nd March and we have a fun filled week of activities in place at the UCLan and Ri Young Scientist Centre (YSC).

We have the official opening of the UCLan and Ri YSC which takes place on Wednesday.

The centre is a state-of-the-art lab used to deliver interactive workshops, allowing young people to creatively explore science. It is the first national branch of the YSC outside of London and it is a beacon for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in Lancashire.

Staff and students battled it out last week at our Demo Day heats to secure a place to perform for us at our Demo Day 2015 which lands on Thursday, March 19.

From daring demonstrations to exceptional experiments we had a variety of demos and it was a very hard decision to choose the final five performances who will showcase their demo at the YSC. The final winner will be chosen by school children on Thursday. This will be our first event in the centre after its official opening.

We will also be performing some of your favourite #scistories so don’t forget to share with us your most memorable science experiments/demos from school. You can share yours by tweeting us @YSCUCLan using the hashtag #SciStories or share your experiences on our Facebook page.

Demo Day is an annual campaign aimed at inspiring school teachers and technicians to explore ideas and promote discussions through exciting science demonstrations.